Senior Harness Engineer

About This Role

Help build the wiring backbone for a new class of spacecraft: orbital data centers. As Senior Harness Engineer at Starcloud, you will own the electrical interconnect system that ties together power, avionics, RF, storage, and GPU compute subsystems on our vehicles. This is an opportunity to work on a category-defining platform at the intersection of aerospace, energy, and AI infrastructure, where harness design is not a support function but a mission-critical system that directly affects reliability, manufacturability, integration speed, and flight readiness.

You will lead harness development end to end, from architecture and connector strategy through detailed design, 3D routing, release documentation, manufacturing support, inspection, and vehicle integration. We are looking for someone who is equally comfortable making design decisions in CAD, reviewing interfaces with electrical and mechanical teams, and working hands-on with technicians on the production floor and in the integration bay. In a small, highly technical team, you will have clear ownership, fast feedback loops, and outsized influence on how Starcloud builds first-of-a-kind space systems.

Starcloud is building scalable compute infrastructure in space to support AI training, in-space data processing, storage, and sovereign cloud computing. That mission requires robust, high-performance spacecraft hardware built with rigor and speed. In this role, you will help define the standards, processes, and execution model for harnessing across the vehicle as we move toward flight.

Responsibilities

• Own the spacecraft electrical interconnect system end to end, covering power, data, RF, avionics, storage, and GPU/compute subsystems from concept through flight integration
• Develop complete harness designs, including interconnect diagrams, wiring schematics, wire and cable selection, connector and contact selection, shielding and grounding strategies, derating analysis, and routing constraints
• Create and maintain 3D harness routing models in CAD, coordinating clamp locations, bend radii, service loops, clearances, keep-outs, and access needs with mechanical and structures engineers
• Serve as the primary bridge between electrical and mechanical teams by driving interface alignment, maintaining ICDs, and identifying pinout, packaging, and routing mismatches before they reach production
• Release high-quality manufacturing documentation, including drawings, build books, from/to lists, inspection criteria, and revision-controlled updates through ECO processes
• Partner closely with technicians and manufacturing teams to support harness fabrication, inspection, troubleshooting, and rework, ensuring builds are completed to quality and schedule
• Support vehicle integration and test by overseeing harness installation, resolving nonconformances, and improving design-for-assembly and design-for-serviceability across the spacecraft

Requirements

Must-haves

• 7+ years of experience in harness, cable, or electrical interconnect design for aerospace, spacecraft, launch vehicles, aviation, defense, or other high-reliability hardware systems
• Proven ownership of harness development through the full lifecycle, including architecture, detailed design, release documentation, manufacturing support, inspection, test, and installation
• Experience designing harnesses for mixed power and signal systems, including high-current power distribution, data interfaces, shielding, grounding, wire derating, and connector/contact selection
• Strong proficiency with 3D harness routing and design tools such as NX, Creo, CATIA, Siemens Capital, Zuken E3, or similar CAD/electrical design platforms
• Ability to create and control complete harness documentation packages, including schematics, wire lists, from/to lists, drawings, build books, ICDs, and ECO-driven revisions
• Demonstrated success working cross-functionally with electrical, mechanical, structures, manufacturing, and integration teams to resolve interface and routing issues before build

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with spacecraft or satellite harnessing, including environmental considerations such as vibration, thermal extremes, vacuum compatibility, and integration constraints in tightly packaged systems
• Familiarity with EMI/EMC-sensitive design, RF interconnects, avionics systems, and high-density compute or power electronics hardware

Benefits

• Competitive compensation, meaningful equity, and the chance to contribute to a mission with company-defining impact at an early stage
• On-site, hands-on work environment where engineering decisions move quickly from design review to hardware build and vehicle integration
• Opportunity to work alongside a deeply experienced team from leading aerospace, satellite, and compute organizations on first-of-a-kind space infrastructure
• High ownership and broad scope, with room to shape harness standards, processes, and design practices as Starcloud scales toward flight
• Mission-driven culture focused on technical rigor, fast execution, and solving ambitious problems at the frontier of space systems and AI infrastructure